Author:

• Name: Sean Barrett
  Location: US - United States of America (United States)

To build:

    make all

There is an alternate version which might feel more at home for vi(m) users in navigation and which has an easy way to exit.

Bugs and (Mis)features:

The current status of this entry is:

STATUS: INABIAF - please DO NOT fix

For more detailed information see 1991/buzzard in bugs.html.

To use:

    ./buzzard

Alternate code:

This version changes the keys f for forward, l for left and r for right by default to k for forward, l for right and h for left, which is more natural for those who use vi(m). Also one can just hit q followed by enter to quit the maze. It is problematic to reconfigure the keys except by modifying the code directly so the keys are not made a -D at the compiler.

Alternate build:

    make alt

Alternate use:

    ./buzzard.alt

Judges’ remarks:

You will be A-mazed.

You are invited to try to cheat … if you can figure out how! :-)

Author’s remarks:

How to play

When the game starts, you are at the far end of the maze from the exit, looking down a corridor. To move forward, type f and press return. To turn 90 degrees right, type r; and for left, l. You can put multiple commands on one line, and the new view will be drawn after all the moves.

The game ends if you get out the exit (you’ll know it when you see it) or when you type ^D (EOF).

Hints on how to cheat

You can, of course, cheat by looking at the maze map. The question you need to ask yourself, though, is what sequence of characters marks the place where you can escape the maze?

The algorithm is quite bizarre–the primary nested loop that generates it goes top to bottom on the display, looping forward then backward from the current position to draw the left side and then the right side.

Advanced usage notes

The program can also be run from other files containing mazes. The maze should be laid out graphically in the obvious format; newlines separate physical rows in the maze; a space indicates a corridor, and any other character is a wall. Tabs are also considered walls, so make sure to convert tabs to spaces before using it.

Usage:

    ./buzzard [filename [escape-char \
            [start-x start-yNNN

Filename is the name of the file containing the maze. This defaults to buzzard.c or rather __FILE__.

Escape-char is the character in the maze that represents the exit. You can put more than one exit in the maze (for example, you could make all ’!’s in the maze be exits).

Start-x and start-y mark the coordinates where you begin playing. Y coordinate is down the rows in the files, X is to the right through the characters of each line. Both X and Y begin counting from 0. The default is start-x = 4, start-y = 5, which is needed for the buzzard.c, but would probably be inappropriate for other mazes.

BUGS:

You can’t change that at start you’re facing down (“south”).

The drawing algorithm cannot handle open spaces (two successive side-corridors with no wall between them). In fact, it cannot handle small dog-legs properly, although the error is subtle.

The exit is drawn like a normal corridor from the side view; it’s only displayed as the exit when you are facing it.

Improper command line arguments are not handled nicely.

Mazes with openings at the edges will cause the drawing program to reach into arbitrary parcels of memory.

The program assumes that tabs are set to 8 characters.

Primary files

• buzzard.c - entry source code
• Makefile - entry Makefile
• buzzard.alt.c - alternate source code
• buzzard.orig.c - original source code

Secondary files

• 1991_buzzard.tar.bz2 - download entry tarball
• README.md - markdown source for this web page
• .entry.json - entry summary and manifest in JSON
• .gitignore - list of files that should not be committed under git
• .path - directory path from top level directory
• index.html - this web page

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